We slept 11 hours last night! We were exhausted from our overnight flight and our bus trip to Waikiki.
After breakfast we took a bus ride to the Pearl Harbor Museum. We arrived around 11 and were lucky to get a ticket for the last tour of the Arizona Memorial (3:00 p.m.), but there was plenty to do and see.
There are three or four museums about the war on site and we toured a couple of them. Next we toured a WWII submarine, the U.S.S. Bowfin, SS 287 which is permanently moored there. All subs of this class were named for fish. Of about 250 submarines used during WWII, only 14 of them sunk more enemy vessels than the Bowfin.
It was really neat as well as interesting to tour the sub. The hatchways are, by necessity, really small and you have to be very careful not to bump your head as you pass through from one compartment to the next.
There are about 65 sailors on the sub and the enlisted men share “hot bunks.” They don’t have their own bunks but have to share them with others. When your “watch” is complete you wake up the sailor who is relieving you and then take over his bunk. The photo on the left is of some of the bunks. The pinup was taped to the wall over the top bunk shown in the photo.
There are bunks located throughout the sub. There is a captain’s head (bathroom) an officer’s head, and one for the enlisted men. The ship desalinates sea water for it’s fresh water ergo showers are limited to one or two, per man, per week. I bet it reeked on those subs.
After the tour we bought sandwiches and chips from the snack bar and at three p.m. were ushered into a theater for a 30 minute movie about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Next we boarded a shuttle, manned by two Navy bos’n mates 2nd class, for a ride to the Arizona.
The white structure, seen in the photos above, is built over the remains of the Arizona. At the end opposite from the entrance is a memorial wall honoring the sailors who were killed when the ship was sunk. All of them are entombed in the ship. Several of the crewmen of the Arizona who survived the the Japanese attack have passed away and had their ashes interred underwater in one of the Arizona’s gun turrets.
Below is a photo of a plaque which shows part of the wall of remembrance and of the windows that are at either end of the wall. In the photo, behind the marine on the right is one of two plaques listing the survivors of the attack whose ashes have been interred in the Arizona. There is a similar spot on the other side of the wall.
After the tour of the Arizona we toured the gift shop and there, lo and behold, was Elvis. It was our first sighting of “The King,” in our 50 day odyssey.
We rode a city bus back to the hotel, had pizza from Pizza hut delivered to our room. After dinner Sherry went to bed and I worked on this blog. It was a another wonderful day in Paradise and tomorrow we leave Honolulu for San Diego.
(Photo at left is of the flag that flys over the U.S.S. Arizona)